If I Believed
by Megan R Henry
Summary: Her brother, the only remaining family she had left, is dead and Wanda Maximoff is helpless to do anything about it. Or is she?


_If I believed in wishes_

Pietro was dead. Her brother was dead and she was alone and there was nothing she could do about it. She had felt it, felt the pain rip through her as it ripped through him, and she fell to her knees, letting out a scream of pure and utter agony. Even though she wasn't with him, she could hear his voice cracking out that stupid little catchphrase as clear as day, and then suddenly the connection between them went dark. 

_As silly as it seems_

Their connection had been with them all their life, even as children. If one had been hurt, the other had felt it too. Once when Pietro had fallen in the playground and got a nice size bruise on his knee, Wanda had developed an identical one on her knee, with no explanation whatsoever. After the experimentation, when their abilities had developed, that connection had only been heightened and despite the wall between them, she had still been able to soothe him somewhat, reaching out to him with her mind as he crashed against the wall, the door, the bed. _  
_

 _I'd find that hidden place_

They'd always been inseparable too. Their parents had sometimes seemed to expect them to fight or squabble over something, but they had rarely done so, and if they had, they were making up no more than a few minutes later. They were in the same classes in school, they explored together and one summer they'd managed to find a little crevice that they could just squeeze into and they spent countless afternoons in there, just talking and giggling and telling jokes. It had been their place. _  
_

 _Turn back the sands of time and save you_

This was all her fault. She was the one who'd told him to leave the core to her, to go and make sure that everyone else was off the land and into the rescue ships, and not to come back until everyone else was safe.

But now he wasn't coming back at all.

 __ _If I believed in dreams_

Pietro had always been the dreamer of the two of them. Oh, that wasn't to say that Wanda didn't dream, but she had always been more realistic in her approach. He had been the one daydreaming of fantasy worlds, telling her stories of how the two of them could be superheroes. He had even come up with nicknames for them. She had been the one to bring him gently back to earth, to remind him of the real world that ran too slow for his liking, even before he had been given the speed. __

 _If I believed in magic_

Some people would call what Wanda could do magic. Maybe if she'd still been a child, she would consider it as such, but she didn't. There were proper names for everything, it was science. Magic didn't truly exist. She had seen a sentient robot who had wanted to destroy the world, a God from another planet, a man who had been encased in ice for something like seventy years, and a man who could turn into a giant green monster capable of ripping everything apart.

She liked to think that compared to those, she was rather normal. _  
_

 _If I believed in good_

As a child, she'd read stories, of princesses and brave knights who came to save them from the bad guys. And then the shells had hit, and that childish innocence that she and Pietro had still had…it had been robbed of them in a moment, just as quickly as their parents. All because of a man named Stark. A man who didn't even know them, and yet they waited two whole days for him to kill them. Throughout the years, their country had been at war, and they'd wanted to fight back. There was no good left in this world though. Only pain and hurt. _  
_

 _I'd be the best in here_

If she'd been better she could have saved him.

Part of her mind whispered that to her as she sat beside her brother's corpse, keeping an odd sort of vigil. Some had tried to move her, to move him, but they'd been greeted with a scream and if they hadn't gotten the message, she'd forced them out.

If only she had been better, she might have been able to save her brother. There were countless things she could have done. She could have stopped Ultron even getting near them. She could have kept Pietro with her, kept him safe.

But she'd failed. _  
_

 _I'd make our troubles disappear_

Since they were ten years old, they'd always had troubles with something. First, their parents had been so cruelly snatched from them. Then, they had spent over a year in the foster care system. They had wanted to split them up, but each and every time the twins had refused, had fought back, until eventually, they'd run away. They'd lived on the streets, and they'd got money where they could, delivering newspapers or doing odd jobs, until they'd been old enough to be properly employed. Pietro had always promised her it would get better. _  
_

 _If I believed I could_

He'd always been the one to believe in her. There had been times, during the experimentation, when she had been so afraid. She had been unable to control her power, afraid that she might never be able to, but he had held her, even as he trembled and shook and urged her to believe in herself. He had believed that she could control it, and through his support and belief, she had come to manage it.

What was she supposed to do without him? __

 _But wishes are dreams_

She could wish all she liked, but he wasn't coming back. _  
_

 _And dreams are pretend_

Their father had told them once that if they dreamed hard enough, wished hard enough, their dreams could come true. But he had lied. Dreams were pretend, a silly make believe for children and those who lived a lie. She knew that now. The two of them had dreamed of getting their revenge on Stark, of putting the world to rights, and instead the one person that she cared about had been lost to her forever. _  
_

 _So science and reason_ _win out in the end_

Even if they hadn't taken his body, science had called it. No one could survive the hail of bullets that Ultron had unleashed. He had sacrificed himself to save Hawkeye and the small child that he had been protecting. Part of her tried to say that she didn't know why he'd done it, but part of her did.

He'd seen themselves in that small child. Scared, facing death, but this child was alone. __

 _Science says you're dead and gone forever_

Pietro Django Maximoff. Time of death; 2:39 pm. Aged 22 years. _  
_

 _Reason says I'm talking to the air_

She'd been sitting talking to his body, crying over it for hours. She'd talked about everything, recounting every little tale that she could remember from their childhood. Every stupid action, every skinned knee, every time they had gotten into trouble. As if recounting his life would bring him back. _  
_

 _But something in my heart_

She didn't want to believe it, even though she could feel the stillness beneath her fingers. Pietro had never been still. Until now, and as she laid her head on his chest and cried, the usual soothing heartbeat was gone, replaced by silence and emptiness. He'd promised her that he'd always be there for her, so why then was he lying cold and still beneath her? _  
_

 _Some secret hidden part_

Maybe, if she just closed her eyes, she could pretend that it had never happened. If she pretended hard enough, then maybe she could feel the heartbeat beneath her ear once more, and that he would raise his arms to hug her close and brush her hair away from her face, telling her that she was being silly for crying, that everything was going to be okay. _  
_

 _Illogically insists that you are there_

She refused to believe it, even as she felt it, even though she had felt the connection rupture and break as his heart halted and he exhaled his last breath. If she just pretended hard enough, it might never have happened. _  
_

 _Somewhere_

She'd felt part of herself die with him. Her heart had been ripped out. _  
_

 _If I believe in wishes_

As time went by, and no one came to disturb them, she began to think more and more. Perhaps…just maybe, she could change things. Even she didn't know the full extent of her powers, perhaps she could bring him back. Perhaps she didn't have to be alone. _  
_

 _If I can find the key_

If she could only figure out how. If she could wish hard enough, if she could believe in her power just as much as Pietro had, maybe she could bring him back. Maybe she could find the key in her power to allow her to alter what had happened. _  
_

 _Perhaps it's not too late_

She was the older one now technically, her brain reminded her, but it couldn't be too late. It had taken her time to get to him, and she'd been sitting here for an unknown length of time, but she wouldn't allow that to worry her. It wasn't too late. Her brother was in front of her and soon he would be back with her. _  
_

 _To change the course of fate_

What was it that Pietro had always told her during the experimentation? That if she tried hard enough, she could do anything, that together they could change the future. And she was determined that they were still going to do that, that she would get him back and that together, they would change the world, one step at a time. No matter how long that took. _  
_

 _'Cause after all I must be pretty great_

She was powerful.

Pietro had known that. Strucker had known that. Everyone had known that, but as she felt the power surge through her, she realised that she hadn't truly believed it, not properly, until now. She had begun to feel it when Barton had talked to her, when she had returned to that street and fought back against Ultron. But now, now, she was truly realizing the strength that had been given to her. _  
_

 _If you believed in me_


End file.
